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Three years ago I was approached by the chair of my department to teach a section of Children's Literature in our university's recently established degree completion program. I had several reservations. "This is not my area of expertise," I told him. "I did my graduate work in nineteenth-century British literature, I've never had a course in Children's Literature, I don't have any children." He pointed out that Children's Literature really had its start in the nineteenth century. Surely I remembered that children come from heaven to earth, "trailing clouds of glory," as Wordsworth says in "The Intimations Ode." Didn't Blake take up the cause of children in "Songs of Innocence and Experience"? For that matter, hadn't I written my dissertation on Jane Eyre, a children's literary classic? Obviously, since I had been an English major, I must have read every book in the library when I was growing up. Surely I had read Pilgrim's Progress and Gulliver's Travels, Robinson Crusoe and Oliver Twist. I was a reader. Now that I thought about it, I had read a lot of children's literature. Yes, I could teach a course in children's literature. Obviously. Besides, the course was intensive, one night a week for five weeks. How much damage could I do?
That was my introduction to the incredibly diverse, entertaining, and I soon discovered, expensive world of children's literature. Were it not for my agreement to teach this class and the pressing need to read or reread hundreds of children's books, I doubt if I would have given much thought to Harry Potter. Once the first four books hit the New York Times Bestseller List and held the top four slots for several months in a row, I might have browsed through at least the first novel. On the other hand, since I am a Christian and teach at a Christian university, and since my own research for several years has focused on religious themes in literature, I would definitely have taken notice of the heated debate surrounding Harry Potter in Christian circles, including my own church and family. Still, given my other interests, an article I was writing on Toni Morrison, a writing seminar I was teaching on women's spiritual narratives, and my commitments at the...